1. Field of the Invention
Provided are a leucine zipper variant, a polynucleotide encoding the leucine zipper variant, a method of preparing a leucine zipper variant, a method of inhibiting HDM2 and/or HDMX using the leucine zipper variant, and a method of the prevention and/or treatment of cancer using the leucine zipper variant.
2. Description of the Related Art
HDM2 and/or HDMX (i.e., HDM4), a negative regulator of tumor suppressor p53, promotes p53 ubiquitination to mediate the intracellular degradation of p53 by proteasome. HDM2 and/or HDMX is overexpressed in various kinds of cancer, and recognizes the p53 N-terminus TAD (transcription activation domain) by direct PPI (protein-protein interaction). Accordingly, attempts have been and are being made to develop antagonists useful for cancer therapy which inhibit the PPI between HDM2 and/or HDMX and p53 not only to prevent intracellular p53 degradation but also to reactivate p53.